Let's TalkLet's TalkA handful of large projects decides a general contractor's year. The marketing job is to win those - and to stop the diary filling with handyman jobs and bid-shoppers that look like leads.
Give us access to your ad accounts, Google Business Profile and a list of last year's enquiries with what became of them. We come back with where your signed projects really came from, how much time went on enquiries that were never your kind of work, how your project proof compares with the contractors you lose to, and the three changes worth making first. Recorded walkthrough, no call required.
Four failures we see repeatedly in this vertical, and what each one actually costs.
A general contractor built for additions, major renovations and custom work gets asked to hang a door and fix a fence. Broad marketing - 'contractor near me', a generic contact form - attracts every small job in the area, and someone has to call each one back to discover it was never your kind of work. The cost is not the lead; it is an estimator's week.
Some enquirers already have three quotes and want a fourth to beat. Others have no plans, no budget and no timeline. A detailed estimate for a large project takes hours or days, and contractors who estimate everything that arrives spend their best people on work they will never win - and their margins on the work they do.
Architects, designers, realtors and past clients send many general contractors their best projects. That pipeline runs on relationships nobody maintains deliberately: no regular contact, no project updates, no easy way to refer. When one architect retires or switches builders, a contractor's year can change without anyone noticing why.
Large projects arrive unevenly. Contractors fully booked for nine months stop marketing, then discover the pipeline is empty when the last job finishes. Because projects take months to sell, marketing switched on in a quiet patch pays off too late to fill it.
Business outcomes rather than dashboard metrics. None of these is a guaranteed number - where we do guarantee something, it is written into the offer above.
The real deliverables, not a list written to make a proposal look thicker.
Not the general agency pitch. The reasons that only apply to this kind of business.
A general contractor's scarcest resource is estimating time. We build every channel - ads, forms, pages - around the project types and sizes you want, and ask the questions that separate a real addition from a fence repair before anyone calls back. Fewer enquiries, more of them worth a full estimate.
Architects, designers, realtors and past clients send the best projects in the trade, and most contractors leave that pipeline to chance. We set up a simple, regular programme - project updates, a clear way to refer, a reason to stay in touch - so the relationships that produce your best work are maintained on purpose.
Projects take months to sell, so marketing has to run ahead of capacity, not behind it. We review the pipeline against your crews every quarter and adjust spend before a gap appears - which is how contractors avoid the famine that follows every fully booked season.
Every signed project traced to its real source, and every wasted estimate counted.
The project types, sizes and areas you want more of - and the ones to turn away.
A qualifying form and call script for scope, budget, timeline and plans.
Project case pages, licence, insurance and process where clients decide.
Search, local and paid social, plus the referral programme, from one plan.
Quarterly pipeline checks so marketing runs ahead of the crews.
The parts of this that come from having run it in this industry before rather than from running it well in general.
Clients choosing a general contractor want to see work like theirs: the brief, the problems solved, the timeline, the finished result. Case pages for real projects persuade more than any slogan, rank for the searches that start projects, and give referral partners something to share.
An enquiry with drawings, an architect or a designer attached is usually further along and more serious. Asking about them in the form lets you prioritise the projects that are ready to move, and identifies the architects worth building a relationship with.
Clients trusting someone with a six-figure project want proof: licence where your state requires one, insurance, how permits are handled, how changes are priced. Showing it plainly separates a professional contractor from the alternative.
A homeowner planning an addition and a business owner planning a fit-out want different things: one wants reassurance and process, the other schedules, documentation and minimal disruption. Separate pages and campaigns speak to each properly and keep the reporting honest.
None of our case studies is a construction business. The nearest is a residential real estate team where we rebuilt targeting around six high-intent zip codes and automated follow-up for buyers on 90-day-plus timelines - 2,400+ leads at $28 each and 146 closed deals. Concentrating on the right areas and staying useful through a long decision is the same work a general contractor's pipeline depends on.
Read the full case studyBy being specific everywhere: campaigns and pages built around the project types you want, and an enquiry form that asks project type, scope, budget band and timeline. Small jobs still arrive, but they are identified before anyone spends time on them - and can be referred on politely.
Often from referrals - architects, designers, realtors and past clients - as much as from ads. That is why we treat referral partners as a channel with its own programme, alongside search and local marketing, rather than as luck.
Ask before you estimate: is there a budget, a timeline, plans or an architect, and how many other contractors are bidding? Set a clear rule for which enquiries get a full estimate. A short qualifying call saves days of estimating on projects you were never going to win.
Not fixed prices, but honest ranges for common project types help - and explaining what drives cost builds trust. Clients distrust vague answers, and ranges filter out budgets that will never meet the work.
Usually yes. Commercial clients care about schedules, documentation, insurance and minimal disruption; homeowners care about reassurance and process. Separate pages and campaigns serve each properly and show which side of the business marketing is growing.
Projects take months to sell, so judge marketing over a long enough period to see signed contracts - often a few quarters. That is also why it has to run steadily, ahead of capacity, rather than only when the pipeline looks thin.
Yes. Licensing for general contractors varies by state - some license them statewide, others leave it to cities and counties. Show the licence where one is required, along with insurance and how you handle permits; clients look for exactly those signals.
This page is the business. These are the individual pieces of it, each written for how that discipline actually behaves in this industry.
Written for owners weighing this up, whether or not they work with us.
This is one part of a bigger service. Here is the whole of it, and the closest neighbours.
No pitch deck, no discovery call you have to sit through. Tell us the situation and we will tell you whether we can help.